With his client's face hidden under a brown grocery sack, a lawyer tried Wednesday to convince a judge that police had coached a woman to identify the man as a rapist.It didn't work.Instead, Ernest Hollis, 34, of Sanford, took off his mask and pleaded no contest to reduced charges.Defense attorney Don West kept his client's face under wraps during a pretrial hearing while arguing that the victim's identification of Hollis on the night she was raped a year ago at her Sanford home was tainted and should be thrown out.The idea was to keep the woman from seeing Hollis' face before the man's trial.

Seminole County A woman in the Midway neighborhood near Sanford fired shots in the air, then held a revolver to her head for five hours, with her finger on the trigger and the trigger cocked, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office said Sunday. Her actions prompted a tense standoff with police and forced some neighbors to evacuate. The incident ended mostly peacefully about 9 p.m. when officers persuaded her to put down the gun so she could meet with her brother, said Lt. James Clark. But the woman panicked at the sight of an officer escorting her brother and backpedaled toward the gun, prompting officers to use a Taser to incapacitate her, Clark said.

A 39-year-old man charged with breaking into the home of a woman he knows and sexually assaulting her remained in the Lake County Jail without bail on Monday.Howard Lee Davis of 32 Long Acres Ave., Sorrento, was arrested early Monday. He was charged with sexual battery/domestic, burglary, false imprisonment and battery/domestic.Lee went to the woman's home about 1 a.m. and tried to persuade her to let him in the house, according to Mount Dora police. She refused and he entered the house through the bedroom window.

COSTA MESA, Calif. -- A man was arrested on charges of indecent exposure after authorities said he allegedly broke into a woman's home in California and fell asleep naked on her couch. The woman called police Saturday morning after waking up to find Michael Bonnie, 36, on her couch, police said. The two did not know each other.

An 84-year-old woman was attacked in her bed and choked early Saturday by a masked assailant, and police have charged a retiree who previously had borrowed money from the woman and wanted more.James Alexander Sydnor, 63, of Mike Street in Leesburg - whom the woman identified by his brilliant yellow shorts - was being held Sunday in lieu of $32,000 bail in the Lake County Jail on charges of home invasion and theft stemming from the incident.About 6:15 a.m. Saturday, police were called to the woman's home, where she told them she was awakened by a loud bang and noticed her bedroom door was open.

Police on Tuesday released a rendering of a man who may have raped a woman after burglarizing her home in northwest Orlando.Shortly before dawn Monday, a man let himself into the woman's home at Martins Landing Apartments on West Lake Orlando Parkway, near North Orange Blossom Trail.He attacked the woman after shutting off lights in the apartment as well as a bedroom alarm clock and television. He fled through a sliding glass door. The victim did not get a good look at him because he covered her face with a comforter, police said.

A 30-year-old Bushnell man was jailed late Tuesday on charges he bilked an elderly Clermont woman of at least $23,000.Michael Paul Tuberville was being held Wednesday at the Lake County Jail on $10,650 bail. He is charged with grand theft, driving with a suspended license and resisting arrest without violence.An arrest report by Clermont police Sgt. Randy Story gives this account: In early November, a man did some chores for an 89-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed.Since then, the man continued to approach the woman, either by phone or in person, to ask for money.

Quick action by two young girls who saw an elderly neighbor being attacked led to the arrest of a 19-year-old Seminole County man.Gabriel Field, 2340 Celery Ave., east of Sanford, was charged with attempted sexual battery, kidnapping, buglary of an occupied structure, grand theft, unarmed robbery and assaulting a person 65 or older. He was in the Seminole County jail Wednesday night on $25,000 bond.The victim was working in the yard of her home in the 2700 block of Myrtle Avenue about 5 p.m. Tuesday when a man grabbed her and forced her into her home, Sanford police spokesman Lt. Mike Rotundo said.

Orange County deputies were searching Thursday for a man who raped a 73-year-old west Orange County woman and stole her car.The woman was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, said sheriff's spokesman Carlos Padilla. She was listed in stable condition late Thursday.Around 6:30 p.m., the woman was sitting in her living room in her home on Dover Street in west Orange County when a man came out of her bedroom. He threw a blanket over her, dragged her back into the bedroom and assaulted her, Padilla said.

A 46-year-old woman who fired a shot at a concrete truck passing by her home was taken into custody Monday after holding Lake County deputy sheriffs at bay for nearly five hours.No one was injured in the standoff, which started about noon in the New Bedford Estates subdivision off State Road 44.The woman was arrested peaceably about 4:45 p.m. after her husband drove up to their brown, doublewide mobile home, walked to the front door and escorted his wife outside.Two deputies clad in bulletproof vests leaped out of the van and wrestled the woman to the ground.

SORRENTO -- A woman was killed Tuesday when a dump truck slammed into the Jeep Wagoneer she was driving and dragged it into a home, setting the house and her vehicle on fire, authorities said. Late Tuesday, investigators said they had not identified the woman because she was so badly burned. "They'll have to use dental records," said Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Jorge Delahoz. He said the Jeep is registered to Abra Lea Bradford, 28, of Wildwood. Edith Gilmore, 69, was at home when the dump truck dragging the Jeep Wagoneer crashed into her house off County Road 437 near Wolf Branch Road.

KISSIMMEE -- Police arrested a man Tuesday in connection with a homicide investigation into the death of an elderly woman, law-enforcement officials said. Todd Zommer, 34, fled from Kissimmee police when an officer discovered him driving a car missing from the woman's home, said Capt. July Rivers, a spokesman for the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, which is conducting the investigation. The woman was found dead hours before. "The guy jumped out of the vehicle and tried to run," Rivers said.

Police are looking for a man suspected of attempted rape of an Orlando woman. The man broke into the woman's home in the 500 block of East Amelia Street at 4:20 a.m. Monday, police said. Lt. Ed Boyens said the woman heard a noise and then saw the man inside her home. He pushed her onto her bed and tried to rape her. The suspect fled when the woman's daughter walked into the bedroom. The suspect is described as a white male in his late 20s, about 5-foot-10 and weighing 150 to 170 pounds.

TAVARES -- Police said a woman whose son faces criminal charges was attacked in her bed over the weekend by the boyfriend of her son's accuser. Eleanor Glenon, who lives in the River Rest Mobile Home Park, told police an assailant broke into her home, threatened her with a knife and choked her. Police arrested Freddie A. Dixon, 37, of Tavares Sunday on charges of burglary and aggravated assault. He was being held at the Lake County Jail on $30,000 bail. The 57-year-old victim told police said she awoke around 2:30 a.m. Saturday to find a man lying behind her in her bed. The man had a hand over her mouth and a knife to her neck.

Haines City Police are investigating a home invasion Monday night that ended with one woman being struck in the head with a handgun. According to police, two masked men knocked on the door to the woman's home off North 19th Street and one demanded money when she answered. At least one of the men was armed. She gave the man money but he wanted more. When she said she had none, he struck her on the back of the head and they fled with her telephone. The victim refused medical attention for her head wound.

Police are looking for a man in connection with the rape early Monday of a 19-year-old Casselberry woman.Casselberry police said that a man broke into the home of a 19-year-old woman on Seminola Boulevard while she was sleeping and sexually assaulted her.A man who had visited the woman's home the previous day is suspected in the attack, police said.

A Belle Glade man was charged Saturday with sexual assault of a 47-year- old Eustis woman.Willie Paul Bryant, 35, was charged with burglary and attempted sexual battery. His bail was set at $25,000.Police said a man entered the woman's home Saturday afternoon and attempted to rape her. He fled after a struggle with the woman.

BALTIMORE - Three teenagers were in critical condition Friday after a woman allegedly forced them to swallow her prescription drugs at knifepoint, police said. The woman was charged with attempted murder. The teens were found unconscious Thursday after taking drugs including muscle relaxants and morphine near the woman's home in Joppatowne, Md., about 25 miles northeast of Baltimore in Harford County. Deputy sheriffs found more than 200 prescription drugs at the residence Thursday. Police said witnesses told them the woman might have been angry about a confrontation with one of the victims.

An 84-year-old woman was attacked in her bed and choked early Saturday by a masked assailant, and police have charged a retiree who previously had borrowed money from the woman and wanted more.James Alexander Sydnor, 63, of Mike Street in Leesburg - whom the woman identified by his brilliant yellow shorts - was being held Sunday in lieu of $32,000 bail in the Lake County Jail on charges of home invasion and theft stemming from the incident.About 6:15 a.m. Saturday, police were called to the woman's home, where she told them she was awakened by a loud bang and noticed her bedroom door was open.